


Ivory and Gold

by CasualMaraudering



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Modeling, No Dialogue, Photography, References to Oscar Wilde
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23042881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasualMaraudering/pseuds/CasualMaraudering
Summary: Sirius Black is all Remus has been looking for and more. A muse, an inspiration, a theme he never wishes to let go.He’s magnetic. And Remus lets himself be pulled in.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 8
Kudos: 91
Collections: Remus Lupin Fest 2020





	Ivory and Gold

Remus has always been drawn to beauty. He’d watch the streams of sunlight passing through his childhood bedroom’s curtains. His mother’s hair, meticulously put into a complex braid, strands of brown and gold and flecks of red curling and twisting and intertwining. The starry sky in the winter - that one bright, shining star, always there in the cold, February sky. Beauty surrounds him, anywhere, everywhere. 

But it goes as quick as it comes, he came to notice. The morning sunlight was gone were he to close his eyes for just a small minute. His mum’s hair would be messier and messier the longer the day went on, only for her to run her fingers through it and leave her hair loose again. The bright star, he could never find in the summer, no matter how long he looked. It’s there, and then suddenly gone, maybe never to be seen again.

So Remus - at the time an 8 year old lad, lying in a field and watching poppies sway with the wind - made it his dream to capture it, and have it for forever to keep. He picked up a camera, and got to work.

It was years before he started being happy with his photos, and even more before he got brave enough to showcase them. He’s won a few nature contests in 6th Year, got a scholarship, went to university. And there, when he was just starting his second year, Remus met Lily Evans. His first muse. 

Lily Evans, with the most soft, ginger hair that have highlights of gold and red and curl up just a tad on the ends. With eyes of the brightest green and long, perfectly curly lashes. With fair skin and freckles littering her cheeks and nose and seemingly every part of her. She takes breath away, wherever she is. 

Before her, the only person Remus photographed was his mother - and those were precious, cherished photos he kept just for himself. He’s never reached out for a model, never bothered to capture people. But Lily was a little different. 

They did a series of portraits together. And then another. And another. And then Remus found that behind the beautiful exterior is the most fantastic person he’s met up to date. He’s never had someone who fit him so well, who understood him as much as Lily does. He’s never really had a proper friend. And Lily changed that.

She urged him to drop out of school and do freelance - to go to social media, use her as his model, show just how much talent he has. He still did what he loved - they went out on hikes and trips, Lily helping him carry all his equipment and providing company Remus never knew he really needed - but he also started taking on different models. He did commissions, family portraits, different projects; explored people. Hardly anyone measured up to Lily, though. He couldn’t find the passion for that.

When a major brand reached out to him for the first time, Lily took to calling herself his manager - and she fits the role perfectly. Remus has never had the head for numbers and business and contracts, and Lily did.

And after the first brand deal, there came a few more. And then more, and more. He took photos of models, and catwalk outfits, and sport stars and politicians. Not exactly what he wanted in life, but it pays the bills. He has an eye for it, people say, so he doesn’t complain. He still goes out to the woods, takes pictures of nature, of Lily, of his mother (their mother, even - Lily is as good as his sister, and he never fails to see how much calling her that makes her smile) whenever they happen to be back in Wales, of the winter sky and Sirius shining in the sea of midnight. He separates his passion from his professional work. Sometimes, he wishes to be back in university, taking pictures of Lily in their small, cramped apartment. Or at least find someone who makes him burn to keep the camera in his hands as much as Lily had. 

And that does happen. In circumstances Remus never would have predicted.

He’s 22, and it’s the crack of dawn in the summer when Lily kicks his bedroom door wide open and jumps on him with way too much force - she’s far too tall to do that, and elbows him in the face by accident. All is forgiven and forgotten when he’s told he’s been asked to photograph for Vogue.

As little as he cares about his popularity, even he gets a thrill thinking about it. It’s a real deal breaker, and him and Lily spend weeks talking about the set, props, lighting, and all things technical. But that couldn’t have ever prepared him for meeting Sirius Black for the first time.

For a photographer, Remus knows very little about models - he trusts Lily to do the research. And Sirius Black, apparently, has been making headlines for a while now - a supermodel-slash-actor with a tragic family history, gorgeous face, and an LGBT ambassador (Lily winked at Remus when saying that - Remus, at the time, had no idea why should he care about the guy being gay, unless they’d be doing a Pride shoot). People love him, and the cameras love him, so Remus, obviously, was prepared to hate the guy the second he set his eyes on him.

Remus is on set early that day - just like he always is. He checks the set, the lighting, and the cameras; talks to the makeup crew and then the few designers. As he starts testing the cameras with a few prep shots, Sirius Black enters the room.

Remus doesn’t turn to look at him at first, he never does. He doesn’t want to treat models as if they’re angels descended onto the planet and he’s oh-so blessed to be in their presence. He keeps on working, making quiet adjustments to the lighting and camera position as he goes on.

Now, what usually happens, is the model he works with would completely ignore him and proceed straight to get their makeup and clothes on, so Remus would have a quiet half hour or so to keep tweaking the equipment settings. This time, though, he’s suddenly tapped on the shoulder by someone, and he turns to see the most breathtaking person he’s ever laid his eyes on.

His hair is long, falling down below his shoulders - Remus wants to see how it looks glistening in the sun, and wet from rain, and see the man stand in a field so his black hair flies together with the wind. His skin is spotless and pale, with a single beauty mark right below the man’s right eye, and Remus wants a whole series dedicated just to his eyes, his lashes, that mark. And his smile isn’t forced or insincere, it’s a real, almost shy smile, barely showing pearl white teeth, but Remus can already see just how gorgeous he’d look when laughing, his face all scrunched up in the most beautiful of ways, because truly, Remus does not see a setting in which this man isn’t going to look like he’s the definition of beauty itself.

Right from the get-go, Sirius Black is different. 

There’s _so much_ about him, so many layers Remus wishes to unravel and capture, so many contradictions, so many faces to this one man. There’s his pure beauty - aristocratic and noble, but then he’s all rough edges and tattoos and disheveled hair. He has an innocence about him, a childlike wonder Remus sees whenever Sirius asks about Remus’s childhood, his eyes wide with curiosity as if this is something he’s never heard of before. And then, when in front of the camera, he’s sex and seductivity; his eyes and mouth are screaming of sin, his bare skin itches to be touched, the mere sight of him is pornographic.

Sirius Black is all Remus has been looking for and more. A muse, an inspiration, a theme he never wishes to let go. 

He’s magnetic. And Remus lets himself be pulled in.

*

Remus asks Sirius for a private shoot; he sends him a brief and a summary (he has no title for now - he can think of the photos, and the poses, and the hours spent just admiring Sirius, but naming the whole project is impossible for now), and prays to be accepted. And Sirius does.

It’s a series of private meetings. Just them two. No makeup crew, no designer clothes, no assistants or helpers; Remus wants to do Sirius justice, to capture him in his natural beauty.

The more they meet, the less photos they take. 

They talk. And Remus learns that even beneath his exterior, Sirius is just as complex. He has his issues, and his parallels, and so many little things that make him even more interesting the more Remus knows. There’s his family history, the story of awful parents and an abandoned child, of a scared runaway turning up at a friend’s doorstep late at night. But then there’s his passion for simple things - fixing up motorbikes, and gardening, and collecting vintage records. There is just _so much_ to Sirius Black; Remus can’t wait to know it all.

He takes photos of him laughing, of him talking. Smiling, or biting his lip, or yawning, or taking a drink. A few of him drunk. One where he’s crying. Remus can’t possibly pick a favourite - they’re all splendid. 

The series is at pause for a few weeks. Remus doesn’t touch the camera for the longest time since he was a child. And then when he picks it up again, he takes more photos than ever before.

There’s a picture of Sirius with his lips red from kissing, with tangled hair and messy clothes, but his eyes burning of something that’s previously been missing. There’s one of him naked, covered by just a thin white sheet, but it’s not a seductive or professional nudity like in ads he models for - he looks almost goofy, laughing and sitting comfortably, his posture completely relaxed. And of him in the morning sun, asleep - his hair spread on the pillow, face calm, lips parted ever so slightly, the sunlight forming a halo behind his head. 

Sirius reading, the book being The Picture Of Dorian Gray, all because Remus remarked that he feels like Basil, cherishing Dorian’s beauty - Sirius leaves little notes in the book, comparing himself to Dorian and Remus to Basil, ultimately scrawling a long paragraph at the end promising Remus that he would much rather grow old than to do Remus any wrong or drift apart. _“If there’s one thing I’d give my soul away for,”_ Sirius writes, _“is a chance to be with you forever.”_

And there’s photos of Remus, too. Sirius takes them in the garden, in bed, in the lounge, when Remus is reading on the windowsill. They’re not as ‘professional’ as Remus’s, Sirius always laughs, but Remus finds himself loving those even more than the ones he takes himself. 

It’s a few years before the series is done and ready to exhibit. The very last photo shows two hands, intertwined on a bedsheet, with a ring on one’s finger. 

Remus, at last, gives it a title.

_“Dorian”_

_The world is changed because you’re made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history. ~ Oscar Wilde_

_For my Dorian, from his Basil._

**Author's Note:**

> For the RL Fest! Prompt 62: "one is a model and the other is a photographer" with wolfstar!   
> turned into more of artistic Remus rather than wolfstar itself but shhhh


End file.
